ACE: Incredibly, it has been 5 years since Master Chief's last appearance in Halo 3. During those years, Halo-themed games, Halo Wars, Halo: ODST, and Halo: Reach were released but none of those were proper sequels. Rather, they fit elsewhere in the continuity of the storyline introduced by Master Chief's exploits involving the galaxy-destroying Halos. Halo 4 picks up where the original trilogy ended: Master Chief adrift in space with his buddy AI, Cortana.